Welcome!

This site is intended to be a resource site for adults experiencing various forms or stages of aphasia or other communication difficulties and their caregivers. The aim is to provide an online site where patients, their caregivers and family members, students, practitioners, and other members of the community can interact, seek help, and find resources to improve the accessibility of communication for everyone. This site has been initiated in part by the SSHRC research training initiative of the Words in the World project.

Ce site se veut un site de ressources à l’intention des adultes atteints de différents types et degrés d’aphasie ou d’autres problèmes de communication ainsi qu’à l’attention de leurs aidants naturels, leurs fournisseurs de soins de santé, leurs familles et leurs amis. L’objectif est de fournir aux patients, aux aidants naturels et aux membres de leur famille, aux étudiants, aux praticiens et aux autres membres de la communauté un endroit sûr pour interagir, chercher de l’aide, et trouver des ressources pour améliorer pour tous l’accès à la communication. Ce site trouve son origine en partie à l’initiative de formation en recherche du CRSH dans le cadre du projet Mots dans le monde.

Travel Audioguides

If you like traveling, but you’re stuck at home and a written guide book is not ideal, consider downloading an audio guide app! A growing collection of guided tours can take you there from the comfort of your own home, or help you find your way while there. From museums to local hotspots, little-known facts to main highlights, a travel audioguide helps you be there! Try “Your guide – World Travel Tour Guide” by Rockberry Apps or “World Explorer – Travel Guide” by Tasmanic Editions, found at Google Play.

Si vous aimez voyager, mais vous êtes isolée à la maison et qu’un guide traditionel n’est pas idéal pour vous, pensez à télécharger une application d’audioguide! Une collection en pleine expansion de visites guidées peut vous y emmener depuis le confort de votre foyer ou vous aider à trouver votre chemin. Des musées aux hotspots locaux, des infos peu connus aux principaux points, un audioguide de voyage vous aide à être là! Essayez «Votre guide – World Travel Tour Guide» par Rockberry Apps ou «World Explorer – Travel Guide» par Tasmanic Editions, disponible sur Google Play.

Upcoming wearable can put your thoughts into action

Here is an exciting blog article from Venkat at Assistive Technology blog. I am sharing this news because the prospective uses for the technology discussed below would overcome many obstacles that people with communication difficulties face everyday. I look forward to it being refined and put into common practical use!

Ever said “you read my mind!” to someone who said the same thing you were just about to say? Researchers at MIT are making this a reality. A new wearable invented at MIT, called AlterEgo, is a device that sits on your ear, loops behind it, and attaches to your face. What’s special about this device is that it recognizes non-verbal prompts – things that you are thinking in your mind, and responds to them. This wearable device also attaches to a computer system that translates your thoughts into a command that is understood by it, thus prompting a response.

There are certain locations on your face that generate neuromuscular signals when you think about something. Researchers working on AlterEgo worked on identifying those locations – first they found that 7 different location were consistently able to distinguish internal verbalization, and with more experiments, they started finding comparable results with just four locations, which meant that the wearable wasn’t going all over your face with electrodes and being intrusive. After identifying those signals, they sent them to a computer that could translate and analyze them, and eventually associating them with different words. The wearable responds, either in the form of an action, or in the form of an audible answer. For example, you may be looking at your Netflix screen on your TV and wanting to browse through all of the movies displayed. Just thinking “right” would make the Netflix screen to navigate to the next displayed movie. Similarly, just saying “what is the time?” to yourself in your mind will make the wearable say the time out loud to you. What’s also interesting is that the wearable uses bone conducting headphones which means that your ear is still available to you for any other conversation you may be having with another person. The researchers also tried it with a game of Chess (the user would just think about the opponent’s move and the wearable would respond by suggesting the next move), and with basic arithmetic operations.

Currently, AlterEgo has the accuracy of 92%, and responds to around 20 words. The researchers are confident that this wearable would learn more words with more training data, and would scale up very soon in the near future.

Of course, this wearable can be used by any non-verbal person, and someone who cannot operate a device (and control the device with just their thought), but other applications of this device could be communicating with others in extremely loud environments (air traffic personnel  directing flights on the tarmac or at a concert) where there would be no need to speak – just your thoughts would be communicated to the other person!

Watch the video below to learn more about the current prototype and go to the source links to learn more about AlterEgo.

Source: http://assistivetechnologyblog.com/2018/04/alterego-wearable-responds-thoughts.html

 

Apologies

Good evening and apologies,

My laptop died and I have been locked out of my blog until now. I am back and look forward to sharing more info with those who are interested!

Tomorrow is a new day…….

Bonsoir et mes excuses,

J’ai remplacé mon laptop et j’ai été bloqué hors de mon blogue. Je suis de retour et je continue de partager des informations utiles avec toute personne interessée !

Nous recommençons demain !

Christie

An almost-perfect AT device at the CMHR Winnipeg

Something that I myself have been trying to instigate in certain public venues is an accessible device that is so universally-inclusive that it will enable even those with communication difficulties to navigate and enjoy a venue such as a museum, mall, campus, or hospital.

Well, a colleague has just introduced me to a small museum, the Canadian Museum of Human Rights, in Winnipeg which kind of got there first. Revised in 2015, they provide a free App (or a free loaded device) which enables visitors to navigate and enjoy the museum. The audio information is available in English, French, ASL, LSQ, and in transcript form.

I applaud this museum in Winnipeg for indeed pioneering an App that makes the building, the information, and the experience accessible for everyone. Perhaps I should not be surprised that it is the Museum of HUMAN RIGHTS which was one of the first to make this necessary leap!

You can find out more about it here:

https://humanrights.ca/blog/pioneers-inspiring-mobile-experience

Share this image!

Perhaps this image will help educate people more efficiently….

https://www.zazzle.com/not_all_disabilities_are_visible_square_sticker-217622075317420086

New technology enabling brain-brain & brain-computer communication

Who hasn’t tried to send a message telepathically? Whether it was in grade 5 and you were trying to tell your best friend across the room a secret message, whether it was just this morning trying to tell the slow driver in front of you to go, or whether it was your grandfather clearly trying to give you a non-verbal message which you just didn’t understand….but you wished you could understand – well, someone has actually succeeded in making it happen!

In 2014, scientists and researchers in Barcelona achieved the first non-invasive human brain-to-brain communication. For details see here:

http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0105225

This type of technology is called Brain Computer Interfaces, or BCI for short, and has progressed greatly in less than a century, and includes the first brain implant only 20 years ago. Although the idea that a human brain can control a robot across the galaxy seems like something taken directly from Dr Who, amputees have been using their minds to control their own prosthetic limbs for a few years now. This includes Leslie Baugh, who lost both arms in an electrical accident 40 years ago and became the first shoulder-level amputee to wear and simultaneously control a pair of mind-controlled prosthetic arms.

Never left behind in the tech scene, the gaming world has already begun testing BCI gaming and virtual reality systems for fun (https://www.hindawi.com/journals/cin/2016/3861425/) and also for physical and mental rehabilitation (http://factor-tech.com/feature/brain-computer-interfaces-the-video-game-controllers-of-the-future/).

However, the need for a communication device to communicate with non-verbal humans has been discussed for a while now (https://www.uwo.ca/fhs/csd/ebp/reviews/2009-10/Deagle.pdf), and even though limited messages have been sent as far as from India to France, John Trimper, an Emory University doctoral candidate in psychology, points out that, “It is, however, not too soon to start considering the ethical implications of future developments, such as the ability to implant thoughts in other people or control their behavior (prisoners, for example) using devices designed for those purposes. “The technology is outpacing the ethical discourse at this time,” Emory’s Trimper says, “and that’s where things get dicey.”” Read more: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/why-brain-brain-communication-no-longer-unthinkable-180954948/#VXxELMtlXeiRkJoH.99

 

 

le cerveau bilingue

Une équipe de chercheurs de l’Université de Montréal est arrivée à des conclusions intéressantes après une étude auprès de personnes âgées. Le cerveau de personnes unilingues et celui de personnes bilingues ressentent les effets du vieillissement de façon très différente. Dr Ana Inés Ansaldo nous explique.

Écoute ici :

http://ici.radio-canada.ca/emissions/l_heure_de_pointe_acadie/2015-2016/chronique.asp?idChronique=427042

Un livre nouveau sur l’AVC

Auteurs : Annie Rochette et Philippe Gaulin

Le moment où survient un accident vasculaire cérébral (AVC) n’est pas banal ; pour certains, il s’agit de la date d’un anniversaire ou d’un événement significatif et surinvesti émotionnellement. Les témoignages présentés dans ce livre permettent de mieux comprendre en quoi les facteurs psychosociaux, affectifs et symboliques sont déterminants de sa survenue.

Cette phénoménologie de l’AVC se veut l’expression du cadre typique d’une topologie des processus de formation des symptômes ; elle élabore la méthodologie théorique et clinique d’un entretien phénoanalytique qui se fonde sur les principales thèses de la phénoménologie, de la psychanalyse et de l’analyse existentielle.

Aux limites de la démarche philosophique, clinique et scientifique, ce livre pourra intéresser aussi bien les professionnels de la santé qui travaillent auprès des gens qui ont fait un AVC que les chercheurs universitaires utilisant l’approche phénoménologique. Cet ouvrage suscitera naturellement l’intérêt de la personne qui a subi un AVC de même que celui des gens de son entourage qui demeurent les sujets les plus concernés par cette pathologie.

 

ACFAS next week!

Bonjour!

We are gearing up for Congrès de ACFAS to be held next week at McGill campus, Montréal from Monday May 8th to Friday May 12th. Each day there will be talks on different topics, but all will be relevant to le francophonie. If you are interested in checking out any of the talks, go to the links from the congrès found here:

http://www.acfas.ca/evenements/congres

See you there!

 

CAMS : Communicative Access Measures for Stroke

Good morning!  On the subject of my last post, I have found a tool to assess exactly how accessible any particular organization is in regards to communication. Or, in other terms, how “aphasia friendly” is your place of business? https://cams.aphasia.ca/

It appears to be fairly straightforward and includes an overview package and a 30 minute video to clarify what CAMS is and to help with setting up a free account. The steps which follow are explained using text and visuals.

The surveys, which the measures are based on, are intended to be taken by staff, SLPs (if possible), patients, and administrators. I am mentioning this because I feel that surveying all the people involved should be a more objective and accurate measure of just how accessible communication is for those who need it in any particular place. I applaud this organization for providing this service for free.

The surveys themselves are available as pictographic surveys with accompanying scripts to assist staff in facilitating the completion of patient satisfaction surveys.

If you and your organization do decide to try the measures available here, please let me know how well the process works and what the results of the measures indicate. Perhaps your organization could be highlighted on this blog!

———-

 Bonjour! Au sujet de mon dernier post, j’ai trouvé un outil pour évaluer exactement à quel point une organisation est accessible en ce qui concerne la communication. Ou, en d’autres termes, comment “aphasia friendly” est votre lieu d’affaires? https://cams.aphasia.ca/
Il semble assez simple avec une vidéo de 30 minutes pour clarifier ce qu’est CAMS et pour aider à créer un compte gratuit. Les étapes qui suivent sont expliquées à l’aide de textes et de visuels.
Les enquêtes sur lesquelles les mesures sont fondées sont destinées à être prises par le personnel, les orthophonistes (si possible), les patients et les administrateurs. Je mentionne cela parce que je pense que les opinions de toutes les personnes impliquées devrait être une mesure plus objective et plus précise de la façon dont la communication accessible est destinée à ceux qui en ont besoin dans un endroit particulier. J’applaudis cette organisation pour fournir ce service gratuitement.
Les enquêtes elles-mêmes sont disponibles en tant que relevés pictographiques avec des scripts d’accompagnement pour aider le personnel à faciliter l’achèvement des enquêtes de satisfaction des patients.
Si vous et votre organisation décidez d’essayer les mesures disponibles ici, faites-moi savoir si le processus fonctionne bien et ce que montrent les résultats des mesures. Peut-être que votre organisation pourrait être mise en évidence sur ce blog!